a month in Brazil
It's been a month in Brazil. I've wanted to write to reflect on everything I've been done, but the longer I procrastinate, the more I feel as though the memories in my head will fall flat on the page. Also, it's been relatively tough to find enough peace and quiet to write...
Since we last heard from our hero, I left Gramado and the wonderful family there. I couldn't think of an appropriate parting gift at all but I ended up taking them out to a classy fondue restaurant, which was an interesting experience for me as well, since it was my first time. It was nice to spend Christmas with a family. Lots of people I talked to spent Christmas on the beach in Rio or something like that, but you can do that on January 25 or November 25 just as well as you can do it on December 25. It was so cozy to have a turkey, watch presents get exchanged, the eldest daughter with her boyfriend, the younger daughter eschewing meat and strumming the guitar, the mom laughing with her sister, the cousin shyly trying to speak English with me, the family dog begging for scraps. It seems unimaginably kind to allow a complete stranger into your family home during the holidays and I'm so grateful for that.
I bussed from Gramado to Porto Alegre and flew to Rio, staying at a hostel over New Year's. I went back and forth in Rio about whether I wanted to do a private party, or celebrate on the beach filled with two million people. The private parties were pretty expensive (from US$300-$1250), and a lot of the equity of that was the open bar, so I ended up going the commoner route. It's really hard to conceive of packing two million people onto the beach. And thanks to the fact that I no longer have a camera because of the activities of that evening, I can't post a picture of it either. So here's a couple stock ones from Google:
It was about what you'd expect, in short, total madness. The group from the hostel had trouble staying together after midnight due to the chaos, but I think everyone still had fun. You saw people jumping in the water (I was included in that group), people enthusiastically hugging, demonstratively making out, dancing with strangers, all of what you envision in your head when you think of a 2 million person beach party.
The hostel underwent an interesting transformation in my time there. From the 28th-2nd, the composition of the room was 5 Kiwis (all guys), 3 Aussie girls and 2 Aussie guys. They ranged from 19-23. The five Kiwi dudes were insane party animals. Along with the girls there was some insane amount of pregaming at the hostel and partying until 6am. Surprisingly, none of this really bothered me, so I must be getting a lot more mellow in my 30s. For NYE, the boys had separate plans so I went with the five Australians. The Aussie girls were young, pretty, and liked to show off their bodies, which while nothing to complain about led to a lot of physical attention from the locals. I had to play bodyguard a few times and luckily did not end up getting curb-stomped by anyone for defending their honour. But during the last couple of nights, we had a decidedly older, more mature crowd and suddenly I'm the one staying up late.
I've also been surprised at how little Portuguese is spoken by the travelers I've met in Rio. Every night in Rio, I've been the translator, and my Portuguese really still sucks. It's improved by leaps and bounds, but there are still big holes in my vocabulary, and yet the other travelers treated me like their linguistic hero. When I was in Floripa, I met lots of people who spoke excellent Portuguese, but I guess the people who come to Rio just have no intention of doing so. Really, I don't mind, because I enjoy the practice of translating for people, whether it's making a confusing food order or chatting up girls on the beach. I'm just surprised because it's such a beautiful language spoken by such beautiful people.
After what felt like an eternal layoff, I did finally get around to getting some jiujitsu training. I went to Fight Zone/Check Mat in Copacabana, which I've heard tons about on the jiujitsu forums. The descriptions are very accurate: tons of higher belts who are extremely fucking good at grappling. I hope to update the potlimitfighter blog at some point with my experiences there.
For now, I'm just taking things one day at a time. I don't have anything booked in terms of accommodation after the 6th, but I have a friend arriving in Brazil tomorrow, so I suspect we'll figure something out.
Hope everyone had a great New Year!
Since we last heard from our hero, I left Gramado and the wonderful family there. I couldn't think of an appropriate parting gift at all but I ended up taking them out to a classy fondue restaurant, which was an interesting experience for me as well, since it was my first time. It was nice to spend Christmas with a family. Lots of people I talked to spent Christmas on the beach in Rio or something like that, but you can do that on January 25 or November 25 just as well as you can do it on December 25. It was so cozy to have a turkey, watch presents get exchanged, the eldest daughter with her boyfriend, the younger daughter eschewing meat and strumming the guitar, the mom laughing with her sister, the cousin shyly trying to speak English with me, the family dog begging for scraps. It seems unimaginably kind to allow a complete stranger into your family home during the holidays and I'm so grateful for that.
I bussed from Gramado to Porto Alegre and flew to Rio, staying at a hostel over New Year's. I went back and forth in Rio about whether I wanted to do a private party, or celebrate on the beach filled with two million people. The private parties were pretty expensive (from US$300-$1250), and a lot of the equity of that was the open bar, so I ended up going the commoner route. It's really hard to conceive of packing two million people onto the beach. And thanks to the fact that I no longer have a camera because of the activities of that evening, I can't post a picture of it either. So here's a couple stock ones from Google:
It was about what you'd expect, in short, total madness. The group from the hostel had trouble staying together after midnight due to the chaos, but I think everyone still had fun. You saw people jumping in the water (I was included in that group), people enthusiastically hugging, demonstratively making out, dancing with strangers, all of what you envision in your head when you think of a 2 million person beach party.
The hostel underwent an interesting transformation in my time there. From the 28th-2nd, the composition of the room was 5 Kiwis (all guys), 3 Aussie girls and 2 Aussie guys. They ranged from 19-23. The five Kiwi dudes were insane party animals. Along with the girls there was some insane amount of pregaming at the hostel and partying until 6am. Surprisingly, none of this really bothered me, so I must be getting a lot more mellow in my 30s. For NYE, the boys had separate plans so I went with the five Australians. The Aussie girls were young, pretty, and liked to show off their bodies, which while nothing to complain about led to a lot of physical attention from the locals. I had to play bodyguard a few times and luckily did not end up getting curb-stomped by anyone for defending their honour. But during the last couple of nights, we had a decidedly older, more mature crowd and suddenly I'm the one staying up late.
I've also been surprised at how little Portuguese is spoken by the travelers I've met in Rio. Every night in Rio, I've been the translator, and my Portuguese really still sucks. It's improved by leaps and bounds, but there are still big holes in my vocabulary, and yet the other travelers treated me like their linguistic hero. When I was in Floripa, I met lots of people who spoke excellent Portuguese, but I guess the people who come to Rio just have no intention of doing so. Really, I don't mind, because I enjoy the practice of translating for people, whether it's making a confusing food order or chatting up girls on the beach. I'm just surprised because it's such a beautiful language spoken by such beautiful people.
After what felt like an eternal layoff, I did finally get around to getting some jiujitsu training. I went to Fight Zone/Check Mat in Copacabana, which I've heard tons about on the jiujitsu forums. The descriptions are very accurate: tons of higher belts who are extremely fucking good at grappling. I hope to update the potlimitfighter blog at some point with my experiences there.
For now, I'm just taking things one day at a time. I don't have anything booked in terms of accommodation after the 6th, but I have a friend arriving in Brazil tomorrow, so I suspect we'll figure something out.
Hope everyone had a great New Year!